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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22457602">Regret</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angel_L_V/pseuds/Angel_L_V'>Angel_L_V</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>RWBY</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2019-03-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2019-03-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 16:47:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,191</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22457602</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angel_L_V/pseuds/Angel_L_V</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Years after the War with Salem, the world of Remnant is calming. But some people have time now, with this calm, to reflect on what happened before. Some look back with relative happiness, and some have to face the skeletons they left behind. No matter how much it may hurt.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Regret</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Regret:</p><p> </p><p>The past few years had taken their toll on her, she knew that. She had fought for herself for so long that fighting for others had been difficult. Speaking to her daughter again had been difficult. But she’d decided to do so. Why she decided then she’d never know. But to say that her doing so was the greatest decision she’d ever made would be an understatement. She felt that just as she felt her granddaughter's skin as the little black-haired girl slept in her arms. Raven would cry if she still could, but the wars of the past had robbed her of that ability. She had no tears left. Not that her right eye could produce any even if she had the will to do so, she thought smiling sadly as she felt the long scar that had long since removed half of her sight. Ironwood had offered to replace it, of course, but she declined. She’d suffered because she’d let her guard down, and she never would again. Especially for her family.</p><p>The tribe had been her family for so long, that when they ceased to exist it forced her to do some soul searching. Salem was ruthless, and with her Maiden abilities, she’d always been a target. And when her tribe was left in ashes by the woman herself, she had barely escaped with her life and was forced to do something she had fought for years to never have to do again; look in the mirror. There was no running from Salem and there was certainly no more running from herself. She had to take a stand, and by herself, she’d be nothing. So she ran back to Ozpin, beaten and weak asking for a place in their ranks again. None of them trusted her, and she knew she had given them no reason to do so. But they also knew a fully-trained Maiden was invaluable. Both parties’ reluctance notwithstanding, she made her place among them again. Raven had figured her brother would be the most awkward, but the shattered remains of even a possibility for a relationship with her daughter was much, much worse. Yang wouldn’t even look at her for weeks, much less respond to her. To this day she knew she deserved worse. It took years for them to be able to speak to each other as anything other than strangers. But with the help of Tai, they’d managed to express at least their issues to one another. Raven knew she had a lot to make up for.</p><p>And now, holding little Summer in her arms she knew that she had at least done one thing right. Slowly, the child began to stir, and Raven rose from the chair perched up on the porch outside the old home in Patch. Seeing the old place, even with always filled her with memories, but also with the heartbreak of all the time she had wasted not being here and more importantly not with the only real family she’d ever had. She still disagreed with Tai on how the girls were raised in some aspects and planned to make sure Summer ended up better than them all, but she had to admit that her own daughter had managed to be more than she ever was at her age. <em> Or ever, really. </em> And as she entered their living room to find Yang herself peering at their television intently as the news was being broadcast, Raven rolled her eyes. <em> Another Grimm surge? </em> Raven thought, looking at the screen. Sure enough, the pools had been acting up again, both more sporadic and unpredictable with each passing year. It was now widely believed that before her imprisonment in the chamber that used to hold the Relic of Creation she had used what powers she had left to make the pools stronger, more active. Some thought she was still manipulating them, even from so far. Raven wouldn’t be surprised. She knew there had been discussions within the Atlas scientific community about finding something to destroy the pools themselves and get rid of the creatures forever. But for now, whenever the Grimm amassed enough numbers to reach the edges of the continent in which the soulless creatures spawned, the fleets would be mobilized and along with them the new generation of huntsman and huntresses would be called upon to defend the world and wipe out their armies.</p><p>Raven stared at her daughter, now a fully grown woman with her own sets of scars from countless battles to match even her mother, not even counting her arm. Yet despite her warrior instinct, Yang still found a way to not notice her until she was less than ten feet away. “Are you going?” Raven asked her. She knew she didn’t want to. Fighting Grimm was still dangerous, and it wasn’t about her anymore. Typically Raven had tried to pick up the slack with her gone, both when she was pregnant and afterward so that little Summer could still have a home, but without an eye and with her getting older even her Maiden abilities didn’t allow her to be on par with the other huntresses that traveled there. She’d have to go sometime.</p><p>Yang nodded. “Take care of Summer while I’m gone?”</p><p> </p><p>Raven smiled. “Of course.”</p><p> </p><p>And the next morning her daughter left along with her husband and sister. It still confused her seeing them together, she had always figured that Blake Belladonna would have been the one Yang would choose to spend her life with. But she had misjudged the two of them, it seemed, as Yang had instead chosen another. Raven took a long time to get used to her choice, too. At first glance, he was nothing. Weak and foolish, like so many others she’d met and walked over. But as she grew to know the boy, and eventually the man he became, she understood why Yang had chosen Jaune Arc of all people.</p><p>Regardless, she was stuck with her four-year-old granddaughter and nothing else to do with everyone else gone. Even Tai, who began going less as a frontline huntsman and more as a tactical consultant, had left her with the annoyance that was a toddler. She wasn’t good with kids and everyone knew it, Ruby going so far as to offer to take care of Summer while they were away. But the Grimm came first, and Ruby was much younger and every bit the fighter she was, not to mention a Maiden herself. So Raven accepted her role and was left alone with the four-year-old. <em> At least the child can properly use the restroom now, </em> Raven thought to herself happily. Those scenarios were certainly not things she wanted to ever deal with again.</p><p>But soon enough the boredom and loneliness kicked in, and with no one to talk to and stuck on the admittedly boring island of Patch, Raven needed something to do. So at night when the child was asleep she went out to indulge in the more… unorthodox hobby she had. She hid it from everyone, even her daughter and brother. The two people whom she was closest to in this world had no idea as she reached her destination. It was a quiet, tranquil place. Of course it was, Tai had designed it that way. Looking across, she saw that there was no dust on the familiar gravestone, and she had not been here in at least a week.</p><p><em> Ruby, </em> she thought. The little girl came here often enough to where that wasn’t out of the ordinary, Raven supposed. Especially since everyone went out on a mission. Little Rose always took the time to visit her mother. Even seeing the engraving of her former teammate’s name rattled her.</p><p>“Hey,” Raven said, doubting herself. <em> This is stupid, I’m talking to a stone</em>. And yet she did it as frequently as she could without anyone noticing. For hours, she would continue to tell her old friend both anything and everything that came through her mind. One moment she would be telling Summer a story about her and Qrow growing up in the Branwen tribe, the next she would be reminiscing over a stupid thing her brother did at Beacon when were kids. Raven hadn’t become this sentimental until recently, which as she thought of it might have been what prompted her strange hobby of talking to her dead teammate over and over again. Raven was smart enough to know that there was a point to these one-sided conversations, that she was looking for something in them. <em> But what? </em> she thought.</p><p>Throughout these conversations, she would spend time in the area training with her sword and her powers. This part of her hobby made much more sense to her, or at least the old her. While she might have mellowed out over the years, she might not be as strong as she used to be, and she might not be fighting on the front lines anymore, but Raven Branwen still always wanted to be ready for anything that came her way or sought to harm her family. <em> The greed and wrath of humans are far more dangerous than any Grimm, </em> she thought. Not to mention that having two Maidens in the family made them targets. Leaving her alone with the child meant that she needed to be prepared for anything.</p><p>But as the conversation went on that night, Raven felt something was missing. She couldn’t… <em> connect </em>like she used to. Her stories and recollections wouldn't flow together as they usually did. She was confused. <em> This has never been difficult before, </em> she thought. Once she had got past the part of her being a stone, it became easy. <em> Too easy, </em> she began to realize. <em> How many times I have done this? </em> She wondered this as she rose a small amount, craning her neck to stare at the marker of her teammate, its meaning lost on anyone who would find it save a chosen few.</p><p>“You’re dead,” Raven said to the stone as she currently was lying back on the ground, mentally exhausted from both dealing with her granddaughter and the unexpected difficulty of her usual pastime.</p><p>“You’re dead,” she repeated, almost as if a mantra.</p><p>“You’re dead.”</p><p>“You’re dead.”</p><p> </p><p>She sniffled. “You’re dead…”</p><p> </p><p>She rose up, sitting on her knees now, staring at the stone. “You’re dead. You died fighting in Ozpin’s stupid war. A war that I told you would consume us all.” But it didn’t. It never consumed Qrow, Ruby, Yang, Tai, not even herself. In the grand scheme of things, no one important to Raven was consumed by Ozpin’s millennia-old conflict.</p><p> </p><p>No one but Summer.</p><p> </p><p>“You fought hard,” Raven said to the stone. “Harder than any of us. You believed Salem could be destroyed when none of us did. You pulled us out of the fire so many times, inspired me to keep up with Ozpin’s war for so long until I left.” <em> You gave everything, </em> she thought. “Why?” The question didn’t come as much of a surprise to Raven, but what was behind the question. The white-hooded woman was always an enigma to her, and although her daughter acted similarly, there was something different about her specifically. <em> Maybe that’s why I suggested my granddaughter’s name, </em> she thought. Summer was unlike anyone she’d ever known, and in ways she couldn’t describe. She was so… good. She was so clear in her strange morality. Ready to give up anything for anyone or anything she felt was good.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m sorry.”</p><p> </p><p>Raven’s mind hadn’t registered that she’d even said it until a few seconds had passed. The older woman felt her lips just to make sure that she had spoken. She took a moment to process what she had just said. She knew she had meant it, but what was it she was apologizing for? She hadn’t had anything to do with Summer’s death. She wasn’t even there.</p><p> </p><p>She wasn’t even there.</p><p> </p><p>A single tear went down her one working eye.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” she said, void of all emotion. “I should’ve been there.”</p><p>
  <em> She was always better than you, you were worthless. </em>
</p><p>“I should've helped you.”</p><p>
  <em> You never even said goodbye, you witch. </em>
</p><p>“Maybe then…”</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Yang should've had a real mother. Not you, f<b>ailure</b>. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Raven didn't speak. She let out something between a shrill scream and an animalistic roar, the tears and her emotions washing over her as her Maiden powers flared up, shooting a wave of fire out of her own mouth before collapsing to her knees. Up until that moment, she didn't even know that was possible. “I’m sorry.” <em> I let you down, we were teamma- </em></p><p>“We were <em>friends</em>, Summer” she nearly sobbed out, her voice hoarse from her scream. “And I let you down.”</p><p>Raven smiled, wiping the tears from her face with her right arm. She rose to her feet, turned around and began to walk away. She had been out too long, and needed to check on Summer. As she reached the treeline, she looked back at the marker with a small grin. “Same time tomorrow?” she asked the open air.</p><p>“I thought so.”</p>
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